The Familiars of the Lost Witch (ONC 2024)

19. Teen

He hoped to find the little boy that had helped them before, maybe he knew more. But for more information he would need to talk to an adult, even though they wouldn't provide him with answers so easily.

There weren't many people on the streets and those that were seemed to feel uneasy. The news of the witches escape must have already be known and the villagers could be fearful of their possible vengeance. They held their heads low and hurried by as fast as they could.

No children were playing outside, although he did hear some. They were likely playing inside or in an inner courtyard. He couldn't go there without an adult seeing him, so finding and asking the little boy or another child was impossible.

He tried getting the attention of people rushing by him, but they didn't even look at him. He felt the weight of his curse on his shoulders again, but he tried to shake it off. It wasn't because of his curse, that nobody wanted to talk to him, he tried to comfort himself, it was because they were scared and he was a stranger.

But how was he supposed to find out more then? He kept wandering around, until he reached a smithy.

The smith seemed to be the only one doing his work like nothing happened. The boy watched him until he was finished with hammering on the steel and submerging it into water to cool it down.

"Excuse me, could you answer a question for me?", he tried to get his attention, it worked. The smith looked up, studied him for a second and then raised one eyebrow.

"What can I help ya with?" His voice was deep and hoarse, but it didn't sound unfriendly.

He took a deep breath. "I'm a traveller and just got here. I heard someone saying something about witches. What's with them?" He tried to put it as vaguely as possible and to sound only curious.

The smith looked right, then left, before lowering his voice. "Ya want to know about the witches? I'll tell you, but not here. Follow me." He laid the steel on a table, turned around and vanished behind a curtain.

Hesitating for a second, he followed, realising that behind the curtain was a door that led inside a small room. The smith waited for him there and gestured for him to close the door. Only then did he begin to talk.

"So, ya probably heard that we catched some witches and they escaped somehow, nobody knows how. I say it must've been magic or they had some help." He tried to look the smith directly in the face and remain calm. The other couldn't know that he was the one that had rescued the witches.

"But I'm sure, ya are curious why those witches were locked up, right?" Yes, that was exactly what he wanted to know, so he nodded. "I don't know why, but every few years a lot of witches come through our village. We never had a problem with them, even traded for some potions and herbs." What changed then? 

"This year was different. We had a drought and many of our lifestock fell ill. Ya know what happens then, humans want to blame something or someone for the things nature does, even though it's nobody's fault. Then the witch hunter came and gave them someone to blame, the witches. A witch must have cursed these lands, so they need to pay for that. Burn a witch and it will rain and make your animals healthy again, the hunter said and the village elders conviniently agreed."

That was bad. Making it rain was simply impossible, either it rained or it did not, no human could control the weather and witches couldn't either.

"You sound like you didn't believe that. Why did you let them capture witches then?", he mustered up the courage to ask directly. The smith had told him so much already and seemed like he didn't share the same views as the rest of the village.